Open Forum: 97.1% of Second Life Users Now Log In Through Mesh-Enabled Viewers, So What About You?

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

A recent graph by SL resident Kadah Coba paints a very interesting picture of the current rate of mesh adoption in Second Life. As reported by Daniel Voyager last month, mesh viewer adoption is at just over 97% now.

Surprising? Not exactly. But given how vocal many NWN readers were on the issue even one year ago, I'm curious: When did you make the switch, and why?

Now the data on this isn't perfect. In the original SLUniverse post where this was shared, Kadah clarifies that the numbers are based on which viewers are being used and that some viewers that have mesh enabled are based on essentially pre-mesh versions of the SL client, which could lead to numbers that are slightly lower than reality. On the other side of the scale it's possible that some viewers allow users themselves to disable mesh, not to mention that there are still a few cases of people who are unable to see mesh correctly even while using mesh viewers, so it's important to remember that this only tells us how many people are using mesh-enabled viewers, not how many are able to see or even use mesh themselves... Though personally I suspect that number is still very high.

I was a very early and enthusiastic adopter of mesh, but what about you? Did it take you some time to find mesh appealing? Did you have to update your hardware? Are you perhaps even one of the 2.9% still using a non-mesh viewer? Share your mesh adoption (or rejection) stories in the comments below!

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Alicia Chenaux]

The first day a mesh dress was released to the public in 2011, I said "HECK YES" and jumped in on it. I have never looked back. My computer isn't the newest or the best now, and was even worse back then, but I have always been able to see it.

[Ai Austin]

I was an early adopter and mesh tester around October 2010, as I am a firm believer in doing complex builds in portable tools external to a target virtual world. I made initial use of complex meshes for testing in OpenSim and shifted the working versions into Second Life.

But another reason that people may have had adopted up to date viewers may be the availability of media on a prim as another feature supported in all recent viewers.

See http://openvce.net/mesh-in-sl-and-opensim

[Iggy]

Firestorm runs a little slower now on my three-year old MacBook Pro. Not seen a whiff of difference otherwise. I purchased some mesh hats and hair. SL looks better, that is certain.

As for my colleagues, only a few v. 1.23 holdouts remain. All of us are more likely to fret about not having the time or interest to learn to build in collaborative groups with students, using the new mesh technology, but we still have prims and sculpties available.

[Damien Fate]

I was an early adopter, in the beta, absolutely loving mesh and was glad to be part of the few offering mesh products day one!

Happy to see the adoption rate is finally nearing 100% even if it took well over a year. It makes you wonder how long adoption rates will be for the deformer code (if it ever comes out)... but that's another discussion.

[Toady Nakamura]

People are using the V3 "mesh enabled viewer" because there's no credible option to NOT use a mesh enabled viewer.

Using a mesh enabled viewer has no relationship to their acceptance or use of mesh itself.

[Sean]

I have used Mesh since it first came out. I have swapped most of my inventory over to mesh (where it makes sense) and tend to ignore most non-mesh creations in world now. A big fan of mesh. It has been a long time since I have talked to someone that cannot see mesh, but those that can't really are missing out on some pretty amazing builds and buys.

[Archangel Mortenwold]

I use Phoenix (not the craptastic mess that is Firestorm) and Singularity. Both are mesh-capable. I prefer Phoenix for building, but now that the viewer is no longer updated it's only a matter of time before I move to Singularity all the time. And it's a shame, too, because as a builder in Second Life, I rely on the building tools Phoenix offers but which Singularity has yet to implement.

[Tracy Redangel]

I couldn't get my hands on mesh fast enough. It's made clothes and hair so much better (in my opinion). There's still plenty of avatars using mesh-enabled viewers who don't buy mesh. Either they just don't want to spend the money on new stuff, or they don't want to change their avatar. I can certainly understand those reasons. Spaghetti hair may not go away anytime soon O.o

[HALEY Salomon]

hate mesh !! try dancing and swirrling your skirt in MESH ,, PLUS now I have to get a new puter ,, if i want to see mesh cause this FPS is TO SLOW in a mesh vewer ,, sigh I can buy a new puter but some people cant and we will lose more friends ,, and i don't believe that everyone is in mesh

[Annabelle Fanshaw]

I believe that mesh is the future (and the future is now). As a builder, mesh gives me option to deploy my work to many platforms such as Open Sim Grid, Kitely, and Unity 3D. Mesh on!

[Galatea]

I wonder how many of the remaining 2.9% are even using a graphical viewer at all? I know someone who logs in using a text-only client half the time.

[Adeon Writer]

Large portions of my avatar's outfit have been mesh since day 1.

[val kendal]

mesh viewer - yes, as soon as Phoenix came out, and only updated to Firestorm after a hardware upgrade because it ran ever-so-slower than Phoenix until then
mesh footwear and furniture - fabulous; most mesh clothes - meh

[Tracy Redangel]

@ Haley:
Why would you loose more friends if you have a new computer and wear mesh? If people are your friends, they shouldn't care if you go around wearing a barrel :). I agree...twirling around a dancefloor with a swirly skirt is fun. So maybe wear a flexi dress while your dance, then you can wear mesh doing other things?

[ZZ Bottom]

I changed to mesh as soon as i found Niran's!
Not cause of mesh itself, even if i agree that some builds can be amazing done with mesh and even you can work mesh inworld, add prims, tint and so on!
So i did move to mesh in May 2012!
On Open Sim, just now started to use singularity, tried kokua but lacks so obvious tools as LL (Worn itens tab on inventory, why in Hell LL does not make that mandatory in Official viewers?).
Niran besides phoenix and Imprudence, is the only 1 with a buid floater that is intituitive!

Again, looking at the mess of the build floater of official LL viewers, one has to question if they do really use them at all!
About mesh impact, it worries me much more the fact that there are still 2 many not using defered rendering and therefore not noticing how the use of inv prims and its scripts, makes a horrible effect on their avatars!

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I resisted mesh for a good long time. I was angry that the implemetation was so half-a... hearted.

But I love the potential too much to let it alone. So I put up with the half-a... measure, and hope for improvement in short order. And by short order, I mean yesterday, my fine young coders. Get cracking.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Mesh is everywhere now. And I've been using it since somewhere in 2011 - when I saw it inworld for the first time.

I avoid non-mesh items if at all possible. Mesh just renders so much crisper. Sharper edges, finer textures, and faster loading. Less laggy feeling.

But as its become the majority for fashion, homes, furniture, vehicles, and pretty much everything now... we're facing a problem is 'too much mesh on the screen and a default value linden lab set too low':
http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/meshmaxconcurrentrequests-the-new-rendervolumelod-thats-killing-what-sl-looks-like-for-some/

We're right back to the whole issue we've had all these years with RenderVolumeLOD, only now with MeshMaxConcurrentRequests...